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The AMERICAN'S Duty 



SPEECH BY 

JOHN MAYNARD HARLAN 

at 
Indianapolis, Indiana 



March 31, 1917 



Air i.*ift2ael'^&je 
^'^t© House. 



lo\\ 




THE AMKKKAX'S DUTY. 



One liuiidrctl and t'orty-onc years ago on the second day oi" 
last January, tlie American flag had its origin. It originated 
in war and defiance. \Vasliington first raised an American 
flag at Cambridge. That was on tlie day of the establish- 
ment of the now Continental Army. The same day an ad- 
dress by the King to the Colonists was i)ublicly burned. The 
hostile British Army, sluit up in iioston, saw our fii'st flag 
go up. No army has ever seen our flag ])('rniaHc'ntly lowered, 
and under Providence none ever shall. 

The first American flag to come into being was known as 
the Grand Union or Continental flag. The Colonies had 
united against England. They wished an emblem of their 
union. The sti'i])('S, alternate red and white, then went on the 
flag, on January 2, 1776. Tliirteen in numbei-, the stripes 
symbolized that the Colonies wei'e united. 

The stars were not placed upon the flag until later, after 
the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 177(). AVhcn they 
then supplaiit(Nl the united ciosses of St. George and St. An- 
drew wliicli had appeared on the first flag, the stars also were 
emblematic of union, as well as independence. They have 
continued to be. "When a new State has been added to the 
Union, a new star has been n<ld(Ml to the flag. 

Every citizen for the United States, and for no other 
country under the sun — that is tlic pi'imary, the elemental 
meaning of the stars and stripes. Oui- flag has a wealth of 
additional meaning. It stands for all the deeds, all the hopes, 
all the aspirations of the American pcojile. It speaks for it- 
self in every language with fai' more comp<'lling eloquence 
than any tongue could speak for it. Cold, indeed, must be 
the American who, with unmoved heart and unchanged eye, 
can see the flag go by. But with all its other meaning, which 



surpasses statement, primarily and essentially our flag signi- 
fies national unity. To stand together is the tirst duty of 
Americans. For anybody to divide, or to seek to divide, the 
nation is to offend against our flag to the utmost possible 
limit. Disloyalty cannot go beyond that. 

There are those among us, however, some, indeed, nom- 
inally Americans, who do not hesitate in the existing crisis to 
seek to divide the nation. And they seek to divide us in 
oi:)inion, to paralyze our national \vi\\, in the interest of an- 
other nation. We face now the danger against which Wash- 
ington warned us in his Farwell Address. "Against the in- 
sidious wiles of foreign influence," said Washington, "I con- 
jure you to believe me, fellow citizens, the jealousy of a free 
people ought to be constantly awake, since history and expe- 
rience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful 
foes of republican government. ' ' I wish that you Americans 
would all take those words of Washington away with you, and 
act upon them: "Foreign influence is one of the most bane- 
ful foes of a republican government." Remember that. 
And whenever and wherever, "foreign influence" raises its 
head, strike it down. Strike it down at once. That is your 
patriotic duty. You can do no less. 

Hardly had the European war started before Germany be- 
gan an organized effort to subject this country to "the insidi- 
ous wile^'.of foreign influence." As a result, first Dernberg 
had to be driven from our shores. Then we expelled Dumba, 
Boy-Ed, and Von Papen. Finally we had to send Von Bern- 
storff home. But there yet remains the German influence. 
And it has been strong enough to embarrass our government 
and impede its action. That influence must be stamped out 
immediately, by whatsoever means at whatsoever cost. 

The "insidious wiles of foreign influence," against which 
Washington warned us so long ago, go far to explain certain 
events in our recent history. Considered in isolation, one by 



one as tliey happened, some of tliose events were not easy to 
understand, or to explain, at the time when they occurred. 
But the culminating- event has now made the whole train 
clear, and we see now against what disloyalty and treachery 
the President has had to fight for so long. We see now that 
some of us, in ignorance at the time of the difficulties which 
surrounded the Pre^^ident, have in the past criticized him un- 
justly. AVe see tiie overpowering need of every American 
now getting solidly behind the President in his etfort to com- 
bat the detestable foreign influence which seeks to subordinate 
the United States, and the rights of its citizens, to German 
frightfulness. 

Let me refresh your memory as to the events I have in 
mind. 

On February 4, 1915, the German admiralty made its procla- 
mation of a war zone on the high seas. It gave notice, in ef- 
fect, that even neutrals would not be safe in the forbidden 
zone. On February 10, 1915, our government notified the 
German government that the attempt to forbid neutrals to 
use the high seas was a violation of international law. Our 
government courageously added that if in pursuance of her 
proclaimed intention to violate international law as to the 
high seas, Germany should sink a single American vessel or 
take a single American life, ''the government of the United 
States would be constrained to hold the imperial German gov- 
ernment to a strict accountability for such acts." 

Within a month and a half after receiving that connnunica- 
tion from our government, a German submarine tor- 
pedoed and sank the Falal)a. One American was 
drowned. The crew of the submarine jeered the dy- 
ing. That was on ^March 28, 1915. A month later, 
on April 28, 1915, the American vessel Gushing, while 
in the North Sea was wantonly attacked and damaged by a 
German areoplane which sought to sink her. Three days 
later on ]\[ay 1, 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the 



American steamer Gulfli^lit, and two more Americans then 
lost their lives. AVithin the week following, on May 7, 1915, 
came the sinking- of the Lusitania by a German submarine. 
Eleven hundred and ninety-eight people then lost their lives. 
Of the killed, one hundred and two were American citizens. 
A medal was struck in Germany in boastful and laudatory 
commemoration of the barbarous act. 

On May 13, 1915, within a week following the Lusitania 
murder, our government sent the German Government a pro- 
test against that piratical crime. That protest concluded 
with this patriotic warning: "The imperial German govern- 
ment will not expect the government of the United States to 
omit any word or act necessary to the performance of its 
sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States 
and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise and 
enjoyment." 

Disregarding the warning conveyed by this government in 
the Lusitania note, Germany continued her policy of brutally 
murdering American citizens on the high seas. During the 
remainder of the year 1915 German submarines destroyed 
many additional vessels w^ithout warning, the destruction of 
four of them resulting in the wanton killing of thirty-one 
more American citizens. The Iberian was sunk on July 31st, 
with the loss of three Americans ; the Arabic on August 19th, 
two Americans being killed; the Ancona on November 7th, 
the American dead numbering twenty-four; and the Persia 
on December 30th, with the loss of two of our citizens, one of 
whom was an American consul on the way to his post to take 
up his duties. Then on March 24, 1916, a German submarine 
torpedoed the channel steamer Sussex without warning, killing 
eighty people. Several American citizens w^ere seriously in- 
jured in that atrocity. 

Following the sinking of the Sussex the President, on April 
19, 1916, told Congress that he had notified the German gov- 
ernment that unless it should abandon the murderous methods 



of submarine Avaifarc it Avas then practicing, the g'ovornment 
of the United States "can have no choice hnt to sever diplo- 
matic rehitions with the government of the German empire 
altogether." 

That k^l the German govennnent to ])romise on May 4, ]f)lfi, 
that it would abandon the methods of submarine warfare it 
had theretofore pursued, and tliat it Avould not thereafter de- 
stroy any merchant vessels without Avarning and without sav- 
ing of the lives of the passengers and crew. That promise, the 
German government lias admitted, was not made out of any 
consideration for humanity or the rights of American citizens. 
It was made because at that 'time Gennany was not so well 
prepared with submarines to prosecute her murderous policy 
at sea, as she expected subsequently to become. When she 
should be ready, Germany expected to resume her sea mur- 
ders. She announced a resumption of sea butchery, and in 
fact resumed it, in February, 1917. 

On February 3rd, the TTousatonic, and on February 14th, 
the Lyman ]\I. Law, both American vessels, were sunk b>' 
German submarines without warning. On February 26, 1917, 
the President went before Congress and asked its approval of 
his purpose to place defensive armament upon our merchant 
vessels, and to resort to any other method necessary to pro- 
tect American citizens and American ships in their legiti- 
mate and peaceful pursuits on the sea. 

After that, progress was rapid to the culminating event 
of the chain of happenings which I am recalling to your mem- 
ory. Then happened the illuminating event which made clear 
what had before been obscure, and showed under what dis- 
tressing circumstances the President had l)een laboring 
throughout his effort to protect American rights on the sea 
against Germany's murderous aggression. Then became clear 
for the first time what had been the effect upon the American 
Congress of "the insidious wiles of foreign influence." 

A bill approving the adoption of the Pi-esident's policy of 



6 

armed neutrality Avas promptly introduced in the House by 
Congressman Flood. Senator Stone, as chairman of the 
Senate committee on foreign affairs, delayed action in the 
Senate. When a measure approving the President's pro- 
posed policy, finally did get before the Senate, Senator Stone 
declined to support it. Senator La Follette conducted a fili- 
buster which prevented the Senate voting upon the armed 
neutrality bill before Congress expired by constitutional limi- 
tation on March 3, 1917. The vote taken in the House showed 
that body to be in favor of the President's policy. Upwards 
of seventy senators, far more than a majority of the Senate, 
signed a declaration that they would have approved the 
President's proposed policy had they been given an opportu- 
nity to vote upon it. 

To explain the unpatriotic conduct of Senators Stone and 
La Follette, Ave need not look farther than to the character of 
their constituencies. Senator Stone lives in St. Louis, Mis- 
souri. Senator La Follette lives in Wisconsin. The con- 
stituencies of both senators are largely Germans and persons 
of German descent. The German government working 
through Germans in the United States, nominally American 
citizens, prevented the adoption of the armed neutrality bill 
by Congress. German influence had divided the American 
people, had brought the government of the United States to a 
standstill. Our unity, the primary elemental signification of 
our flag, had been destroyed. 

Then the blindness fell from my eyes. I was late in the 
waking. When the President's words about holding Germany 
to ''strict accountability" for wrongs to Americans, and his 
statement that the government would not "omit any word or 
act" essential to upholding American rights, had been fol- 
lowed by Germany's systematic destruction and murder of 
American citizens on the high seas, and no decisive action had 
been taken by our government, often I had said to myself, in 
bitterness and anguish of spirit, "How long? 0, Lord! How 



long?" Maiw otlicrs, T knew, liml ('Ni)t"ric'nec(l tlio saiiio I 
feeling-. But after tlio government had been obstructed, as 
it Avas, in its effort to ol)taiii Congressional approval for de- ^ 
fensively arming oui- mercliant vessels, all true Americans 
saw a great lig-ht. We then saw tardily why the President 
bad not ])roceeded to viiidicnte bis warnings to Germany im- 
mediately tbey bad been violated. AVe saw that it was be- 
cause the P]-esident bad known at all times that Germany's 
political influence in Ibis country bad so divided us tbat tbe , 
assent of Congress could not be obtained to asserting Amer ' 
ican rigbts by foi-ce as against tbe interest of Germany. 

We should have seen tbat before. Once shocked to con- 
sciousness, we perceived that the defeat of tbe armed neutral- 
ity bill had not been the first occasion on which the President's 
patriotic will and Germany's strength in Congress bad openly 
clashed, and tbe result bad l)een a virtual deadlock. That 
first occasion had been when the question was up as to whether 
in furtherance of German submarine butchery, American citi- 
zens should not be prevented from going upon tbe defensively 
armed merchant vessels of (Jernumy's enemies. On tliat oc- 
casion,' tbe same Senator Stone who delayed tbe intrcKluction 
of, and refused to sup])ort, an armed neutrality measure in 
the Senate, had diligently worked in Germany's interest. 

Upon the question of keeping Americans ot¥ the defensively 
armed merchant vessels of tlie allies, Senator Stone bad a con- 
ference with tbe President on February 21st and wrote tbe 
President a letter on February 2o, lOIH. Senator Stone, in 
effect, then threatened the President tbat unless American 
rights uj-ion tbe seas should be voluntarily surrendered to 
Germany's demand Congress would coniju'l AmcM-ican citizens 
to keep off tbe seas as Gei'many required. Tbe T^-esident 
declined to yield. 

Senator Stone's thinly veiled threat that Congress would 
override the President in Germany's behalf was sought to 
be executed. The disgraceful ^TcLemore and Gore resolu- 



tions were introduced in the House and in the Senate, re- 
spectivel.y. The struggle between the President and the in- 
fluence of Germany in the American Congress was on. The 
contest between the patriotic supporters of the President and 
the congressmen and senators whom German}^ 's influence 
had tainted, did not come to a decisive result. The President 
was not defeated. But he did not gain a clean-cut victory in 
that contest. Had the President in the contest of February 
and March, 1916, prevailed decisively against Germany's in- 
fluence in Congress, Senators Stone and La Follette would 
not have dared block the armed neutrality bill in February 
and March, 1917. 

The gravity of such episodes as the indecisive struggle be- 
tween the President and Congress in February and March, 

1916, and the failure of the armed neutrality bill in March, 

1917, cannot be exaggerated. It is a part of deliberated 
German policy to influence the conduct of our affairs. We 
find proof of this in the book entitled "Germany and the 
Next War," wherein ^^on Bernhardi, in 1911, summarized. 
German ideals and German purposes. ''The further duty of 
supporting the Germans in foreign countries in their strug- 
gle for existence and of thus keeping them loyal to their na- 
tionality, is one from which, in our direct interests, we [Ger- 
many] cannot withdraw," says Von Bernhardi. "The iso- 
lated groups of Germans abroad * * * may also be use- 
ful to us politically, as we discover in America. The Amer- 
ican-Germans have formed a political alliance with the Irish, 
and thus united, constitute a power in the state, with which 
the government must reckon." 

We find further proof of Germany's policy to influence the 
conduct of our affairs in the provisions of German law Avhich 
permit a double allegiance of its citizens. In general, when 
a citizen of one state takes an oath of allegiance to another 
state, he expatriates himself as to the first state. That is 
our laAv. But it is not so in Germany. 



Germany foresees that lier sons mnst emigrate. She can- 
not feed at home all that she breeds. She foresees also that 
snch of her sons as emigrate may find it necessary or conven- 
ient for the purpose of acquiring title to real estate and the 
like, to put aside the semblance of being aliens in the land 
of their new liome. But Germany wishes to keep her sons 
in foreign lands, as Von Bernhardi puts it, "loyal to their 
nationality." To that end Germany provides by law that 
a German may como liere and become naturalized without 
thereby losing his German citizenship. " ~^ 

By German law a German still owes allegiance to Germany, 
notwithstanding he may, upon becoming a naturalized Amer- 
ican, take an oath of allegiance to the Ignited States and 
solemnl}' swear, as required by our law, "that he absolutely 
and entirely renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity 
to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignt}- and 
particularly ])y name to the prince, potentate, state or sover- 
eignty of which he was before a citizen or subject." The 
natural operation of the German law permitting a double alle- 
giance is, of course, in many instances that Germans natural- 
ized in the Ignited States feel that their primary allegiance is 
to Germany, and that theii- allegiance to the United States is 
secondary and subordinate. They remain essentiallj^ and 
fundamentally ''loyal to their nationality," in the words of 
Von Bernhardi. 

I am far from saying that there are not any naturalized 
Germans in the United States who are singly and sincerely 
loyal to America. I believe that there are many. But there 
are too many naturalized Germans who are not loyal to this 
country. T suspect the loyality to America of those Ger- 
mans who waited to become naturalized until Avar between the 
United States and Germany became a probability. Germans 
in swarms applied for naturalization then. Naturalization, 
they thought, might the better enable them to act efficiently as / 
spies, or to escape internment, in the event of war. Upon \ 



10 

the alleg-iance, and loyalty to the United States of Germans, 
who at the eleventh lionr applied for naturalization from such 
motives, I would not risk a breath. And when we see that 
German influence, working- through such men as Senator Stone 
and Senator La Follette, is both willing and able, on two 
occasions separated by a year, to create an impasse between 
the President and Congress in times of national peril, we are 
mournfullj^ compelled to conclude that there must be a very 
great many Germans in this country, nominally American 
citizens, who are quite ready to subordinate American rights, 
dignity, and honor to the belligerent interest of Germany. 

This comes to us with the shock of a great and disagreeable 
surprise. Doubtless, however, the President, with his supe- 
rior sources of information, has long known that there Avere 
among us many disloyah citizens of German derivation, and 
that through them Germany could so influence Congress as to 
prevent the effectual carrying out of his patriotic purpose. 
Doubtless he has long been aware that Germany could at least 
obstruct, if not defeat,- the taking of any effective meas- 
ures against her murderous conduct at sea. In his speech 
before the Manhattan Club, on November 5, 1915, the Presi- 
dent deprecated "the voices raised in America professing to 
be the voices of Americans, which were not in deed and in 
truth American, hut Avhich spoke alien sympathies, men who 
were partisans of other causes than that of America, and had 
forgotten that their chief and only allegiance was to the great 
government under which they live." 

In his address to Congress on December 6, 1915, the Presi- 
dent referred again to this sinister German influence in Amer- 
ica. "There are citizens of the United States, I blush to 
admit," said the President, "])orn under other flags but wel- 
comed under our generous naturalization laAvs to the full 
freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the 
poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national 
life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name 



11 

of our .i>'ovGi'nnicnt into contempt, to destroy our industries 
wherever they thou,i;lit it rffeetive for their vindictive pur- 
poses to strike at them, and to debase our politics to the uses 
of foreifjn) intrir/rie. Their numher is not great as compared 
with the whdlc nnnihcr of tliose sturdy liosts by which our 
nation has been (Miriclieil in i-ecent generations out of virile 
foreign stocks; but it is great enough to have brought deep 
disgrace upon us and to liave made it necessary that we 
should promptly make use of processes of law by which we 
may be purged of their corrupt distempers. America never 
witnessed anything like this before. It never dreamed it 
possible that men swoi'n into its own citizenship, men drawn 
out of great free stocks such as supplied some of the best and 
strongest elements of that little, Init now heroic, nation 
that in a high day of old staked its very life to 
free itself from every entanglement tliat liad darkened the 
fortunes of the older nations and set up a new standard here — 
that men of such origins and such free choices of allegiance 
would ever turn in malii>n reaction against the government 
and people who had welcomed and nurtured them and seek to 
make this ]M-oud country once more a liotbed of European 
passion. A litth' while ago such a thing would have seemed 
incredible. ' ' 

I am bold onougli to lielicve that the ability of German influ- 
ence to divide our national unity and paralyze the national 
will, is now at an end. Tlie chief danger of such foreigii in- 
fluence lies in the fact that it is subtle, secret or, as Washing- 
ton designated it, '' insidious." lentil sharply brought to our 
senses by the .failure of the armed neutrality measure, we 
failed to recognize that a i)otent German influence existed and 
was being exerted. AA'e now recognize its existence. AVe 
are resolved that it shall be exercised no longer. 

The issue has been made between the United States and 
Germany. Notwithstanding the success of German wiles in 
obstructing formal ai)proval by Congress of a policy of arnn^d 



12 

( noutralit}^ tbe President Icariied from that encounter that the 
SoverAvhelmino- majority of the people woiihl support him in 
npholding American rights and American honor. He has 
Ncourageously and patriotically armed our merchant vessels. 
Germany has continued mnrdering- our citizens on the high 
seas, and has announced her firm intention not to abandon her 
barbarous method of warfare which results in the taking of 
Amei'ican lives. On February 25, 1917, the Laconia, and on 
March 21, 1917, the Healdton, were torpedoed by German sub- 
marines without warning. Both were sunk at night without 
warning. American citizens lost their lives as the result of 
the sinking of each of those ships. The President has sum- 
moned Congress to meet in extraordinary session on April 
2, 1917, day after to-morrow. The only reasonable inference 
as to the President's purpose in thus summoning Congress is 
that he desires it formally to recognize the existence of the 
state of war which Germany, by the lawless destruction of 
Americans on the Laconia and Healdton, has brought to 
pass. 

War between the United States and Germany now exists in 
all but name. The overwhelming opinion of the country 
favors the war. German aliens in the United States, and Amer- 
ican citizens of German origin or descent, must now stand up 
and be counted. Loyal citizens, whatsoever their birth or de- 
rivation, will support the President wholeheartedly. Dis- 
loyal citizens and German aliens must not seek to divide opin- 
ion, or otherwise to obstruct the President's patriotic pur- 
poses. The time for debate and discussion has passed. Every- 
body who is not for the war with "Germany, which now exists 
in fact, though not formally declared, is against the L^nited 
States. Under the stars and stripes, which stand first of all 
for national solidarity and unity of action, there is no room 
for any element which aims to weaken the national will, or 
palsy the strong arm of the nation in time of national peril. 
It is not- enough, however, that the disuniting, disinte- 



13 

grating voice and influence of Germany in our national affairs 
should be silenced and stopped. Since, to repeat the Presi- 
dent's words, there has been ''poured the poison of disloyalty 
into the very arteries of our national life," the nation stands 
in need of aggressive measures of reinvigoration. 

The present Congress is not so different in composition 
from the last Congress, which suffered from the shameful 
domination of German influence, ^lany indeed of the mem- 
bers of the present Congress would not have been re-elected, 
if the defeat of the armed neutrality bill had preceded the 
last November election, and it had thereby been made clear, 
as it is now clear, that the hand of Germany was behind the 
disgraceful McLemore and Gore resolutions, and the contest 
between the President and Congress, in February and March, 
1916. It is every man's patriotic duty to communicate to his 
Congressman at once tlie information tliat universal loyal 
public sentiment demands that the nation shall go to tlie ut- 
most possible limit against Germany. 

Germany is alert, resourceful, unscrupulous, and quite con- 
temptuous of us and of our institutions. She may even yet 
insolently seek to sway our national legislature. AVe must be 
equally alert and see to it that Germany does not mislead 
Congress again into opposing the President's patriotic pur- 
pose to uphold, assert and defend American rights and Amer- 
ican honor. We must wage to a victorious conclusion the war 
which Germany has forced upon us. We do not Avant any 
half-way measures. We do not want to go to war just a little, 
but not too much. We want to exert our whole potential 
strength against Germany. 

And why we should want war is quite clear. I need not 
repeat for you at length our many grievances against the 
German nation. The Germans have murdered our citizens 
on the high seas. They have kept our ships, and other neutral 
ships, off the seas and thereby have congested our ports, block- 
aded our rail lines, and interrupted our internal commerce to 



14 

such a degree that tlic prices of food and fuel have in some in- 
stances become almost prohibitive, with resulting hardship to 
many of our citizens. The Germans have subsidized sedition 
in our own land. Tliey have called strikes, intimidated work- 
men in our factories, and blown up factories and ships. They 
have violated our neutrality by seeking to use the United 
States as a basis of operations for spies and dynamiters oper- 
ating against England and Canada. The Germans have placed 
bombs upon friendh" ships in our ports. They have financed 
■ seditious publications for the purpose of depriving our gov- 
ernment of the support of its citizens. They have forged 
our passports. They have caused the killing of guards at our 
forts and navy yards. The}- have arrested our seamen and 
our consuls. They detained our ambassador, practically un- 
der arrest, for days. The Germans have sought to incite 
Mexico and Japan to wage war against us. 

Certainly these are reasons enough for going to war against 
Germany. But there is a stronger reason, the strongest 
known reason and justification for a fight. We have incurred 
the hatred of the German people for exercising our right to 
sell munitions to the allies. Unless Germany shall be de- 
cisively defeated, she will assuredly, in due time, gratify that 
hatred by waging war against us. It is not' by any means 
certain that the allies, without our help, can defeat Germany 
decisively. Self-defense demands that we shall now add our 
strength to that of the allies, and thereby insure Germany's 
complete defeat and our own future safety. 

When we shall actually take up arms against the German 
nation we must do so iu a thoroughgoing manner. We must 
establish universal military service and training. Public sen- 
timent is overwhelmingly for that. We must send an army 
of a million men to Europe as soon as possible. We cannot, 
consistently with national self-respect, fight Germany only by 
aiding the allies with loans and our industrial organization. 
We must fight as a virile nation fights, with men and guns and 



15 

shot and shells. We must fight in such mannor as to insure 
that German}' shall be so completely defeated, and subdued 
that she cannot ever a^ain disturl) the peace of the Avorld. 

It would, of course, be impossible for us to send any sub- 
stantial military force to Europe to aid the allies, at onc^ 
We can at once, however, use our fleet to the utmost in pro- 
tecting- commerce and seeking to exterminate the murderous 
German submarines. And it would be inspiring if we could 
put the stars and stripes on the firing line in advance of the 
time when we shall be able to go in force to push forward our 
fair portion of the allied front. That might perliaps be ac- 
complished, without weakening our small regular army which 
we shall need at home, in all its strength, to supply us in- 
structors after universal military training shall have been es- 
tablished. There are now upwards of twenty-five thousand 
Americans in the armies of the allies. We might arrange to 
have them collected into a single organization, repatriated by 
Act of Congress, placed under the American flag and iVmer- 
ican officers, and treated l)y the allies as the germ of the great 
American arn\v Avhicli avc shall have upon the allied front in 
time. 

Enemies of the United States, who would subordinate her 
rights and honor to the interest of Germany have had much to 
say al)out our not forming an alliance witli the allies against 
Germany. They would have us understand that Washington 
counseled us against all foreign alliances. Tliat is not true. 

" 'Tis our true policy," said Washington in his Farwell Ad- 
dress, "to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any ])oy- 
tion of the foreign world. * * * Taking care always to 
keep ourselves, by suitable establishments, on a respectably 
defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances 
for extraordinary emergencies." During The war between 
the Colonies and England, Washington sought an alliance be- 
tween America and France. To John Banister, a delegate in 
Congress, Washington wrote, on April 21, 1778: ''A Eu- 



16 

ropean war [/'. e., between France and England] and a Eu- 
ropean alliance [i. e., between America and France] would 
effectually answer our purpose." That coveted alliance 
Washington finally obtained. 

After the United States shall have formally recognized the 
existing state of war between her and Germany, she should 
make a temporary alliance with Germany's enemies, under- 
taking that all should co-operate until Germany should be de- 
feated and that none should make a separate peace with Ger- 
many. That would be strictly in accord both with "Washing- 
ton's example and his precept. For the United States to fail 
to make such alliance would be stupendous folly. She would, 
in such event, subject herself to the risk of Germany's mak- 
ing a separate peace with her present enemies, and con- 
ducting a war against the United States alone. To face that 
risk, without at the same time incurring the danger of in- 
vasion, the United States, would have to create a navy safely 
superior in strength to Germany's, and assume the burden of 
a permanent military establishment equal to that of Ger- 
many. The sane course is for the United States, immediately 
she formally enters the war, to make a temporary offensive 
and defensive alliance vnth the allies. 

Urge these things upon your Congressman. Let the Presi- 
dent know that you will hold up his hands in demanding these 
things. A formal recognition of the existing state of war 
with Germany. Universal military service and training. A 
temporary offensive and defensive alliance with the allies 
against Germany. An American army on the European bat- 
tlefield. Those are the measures we need to restore American 
honor and prestige. And now that the President has scotched 
the snake of insidious German influence in our internal poli- 
tics, we should be able to obtain the measures we need. 

As the flag of the oldest democratic government, our flag 
on the battlefield in Europe would lend such great moral 
strength to the allies as to insure the victory of democracy 



17 

over German military absolutism. That is the real question 
in dispute. Shall democracy or absolutism prevail. Every 
true American hopes that at the last the great day, when the 
German army shall fail and peace shall come again, it may 
be the stars and stripes tliat shall lead the flags of the younger 
democracies— the tricolor and the Union Jack— through the 
breach in the German lines. 



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